Why are we Erasing "Women" from the Abortion Debate?
REQUEST: If you actually start reading this, please read all the way through to get the full intent of my writing. Don’t dismiss it and disregard it merely because there is one thing you may disagree with.
This article in The Atlantic (The Abortion Debate Is Suddenly About ‘People,’ Not ‘Women’) addresses something that has become very concerning to me. The erasure of the word "women" around the issue of abortion.
Just today, while perusing my LinkedIn feed, I found this article posted by a friend “Here’s How Philanthropy Can Protect Access to Abortion in a Post-'Roe v. Wade’ World.” Obviously, I wanted to like it. But after reading the article I became discouraged, as it did exactly what The Atlantic article addressed as concerning. The article states: "A disproportionate burden will fall on those already harmed most by societal inequities — women of color, young PEOPLE, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, PEOPLE with disabilities, and THOSE with low incomes. As there’s a specific reference to LGBTQ+ individuals, why must we erase “women” from the other categories, other than their use of the word “women” with an intersectional characteristic of race/ethnicity. I'm sorry but the disproportionate burden does not fall on young PEOPLE but on young WOMEN. It does not fall disproportionately on all immigrants, but on women immigrants. It does not fall disproportionately on PEOPLE with disabilities but on WOMEN with disabilities. Nor does it fall disproportionately on THOSE with low incomes, but on WOMEN with low incomes.
[NOTE: I did like and reshare the post because there was much of importance in the article regardless of my concern over the erasure of the word “women.”]
Here are two great articles that provide a demographic breakdown of who are getting abortions. Guess what? They’re women.
I understand that there are many conversations about gender identity occurring in our society today. I personally support these conversations. Every human being should be able to identify their gender the way they choose to identify themselves. Let’s not negate one cultural issue to uphold another. Identifying an issue as pertaining to women does not negate that there are issues pertaining to gender identity. There are many of us who identify as cis women. And many of us are progressive. But please, don’t negate my oppression. I don’t negate yours. I support the elimination of that which oppresses you. Mine is real too. Please recognize that.
When I was in grad school, working toward a PhD in Film studies, I read many feminist film theorists (FFT). I had problems with most of them and found flaws in their logic. Most of these FFTs were white women. As am I. It wasn’t until I discovered Black feminist theorists like the late bell hooks, Audre Lorde and Patricia Hill Collins that I found a philosophical approach that I agreed with. So, let me share with you some quotes from Black feminist thinkers addressing the issue of intersectionality and oppression. Just as food for thought:
(1) Audre Lorde from her fabulous essay collection Sister Outsider: “The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us.”
(2) And off of that Lorde quote, Patricia Hill Collins from Toward a New Vision: Race, class and gender as categories of analysis and connection: “While many of us have little difficulty assessing our own victimization within some major system of oppression, whether it be by race, social class, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age or gender, we typically fail to see how our thoughts and actions uphold someone else’s subordination[…]Once we realize that there are few pure victims or oppressors, and that each one of us derives varying amounts of penalty and privilege from the multiple systems of oppression that frame our lives, then we will be in a position to see the need for new ways of thought and action.
One final quote, yes, from a fictional program based on an historical event, “Good Girls Revolt” (cancelled by Amazon Studios then-chief Roy Price who was later removed due to a sexual harassment scandal…oh the irony!). This speech, spectacularly given by Joy Bryant portraying Eleanor Holmes Norton (the ACLU lawyer who represented the women of Newsweek in their bid to be reporters in 1970), incorporates what Lorde and Collins were getting at:
“And as one colored woman to another, I understand how you would feel like this is not your fight. But sister, I'm here to tell you that it is. See, these women have something very important in common with us. They're second-class citizens, and you and I know exactly how that feels, don't we? Kept from your full potential. Paid less than you're worth. Talked down to. Told to shut up and stay in your place. These women live in a box just like you. So don't be fooled because their box looks a little more comfortable than yours. It's still a box. And the only way any of us are gonna break out of this box is if we stand together, because when the second-class citizens of the world stand with each other, not against each other, that's how you change the world. So, when you help these women, Denise, the person you free is yourself.”
The white patriarchy that holds the reins of power doesn’t have to do anything to keep that power…they just sit back and watch the rest of us fight each other. Don’t you think it’s time to stand together? I know I do.
Comments
Post a Comment